Category Archives: electric vehicle

The StreetDrone Origin Story

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STREETDRONE STORY_

If you want to understand how StreetDrone came to be, simply visit their office courtyard around the end of June every summer.

The StreetDrone Summer Party has become legendary in the tech industry in the UK. In this little corner of Oxford, you’ll find autonomous vehicles running nonchalantly up and down the road outside the StreetDrone HQ, showing off their very-much-here technology, while inside the courtyard is a treasure trove of workshops, coding spaces, simulation rigs and, of course, the office bar.

Around the office space, you’ll notice an intriguing blend of motorsport paraphernalia, carbon fibre tubs leaning casually against the wall and empty podium champagne bottles standing next to proud championship winners trophies.

But this isn’t quite a racing team – at least not in the traditional sense.

Mike Potts and Mark Preston are the co-founders of StreetDrone. Both have an appetite for adventure and entrepreneurship, starting their lifelong friendship after meeting in Australia as teenagers.

The first time we ever worked together was actually on a paper round when we were in our early teens

Mark Preston

Cycling the streets of Canterbury in Melbourne, the two dreamed of interesting ways to use technology, especially early stage home computers, to have a real impact on the world – from learning how to create 3D graphics on a BBC Micro to building a rudimental solar heating rig for Mark’s parents pool.

DIVERGENCE_

Mike returned to the UK in 1985, and after dropping out at his first attempt at university – in his own often-repeated words, “I would say I’m a failed, wannabe engineer at heart” – his second attempt, at Oxford Brookes University, became the catalyst for his fledgling business career to take off.

At the start of his final year of study he went to Lloyds Bank on Oxford high street, convincing the business manager to loan him £1000, which bought a “very second-hand” van, allowing him to do deliveries and assemblies of flat-pack furniture for the Futon Company, among others. This was a turning point for Mike, proving to himself he could make something from nothing and generate a good profit at the same time, all while completing his university degree.

Meanwhile in Australia, Mark attended the prestigious Monash University and, frustrated at its largely theoretical teachings, decided to additionally gain practical experience in the proven motorsport training ground of Formula Fords with Borland Racing Developments. Designing and manufacturing the successful Spectrum FF1600 machine, Mark also enjoyed spells with General Motors Holden, working with pioneering crash analysis simulations.

But it was his work with Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s Holden Special Vehicles outfit that led him to the UK and into Formula 1. When the organisation bought the Arrows Formula 1 Team, Mark followed to the UK in 1996.

STARS ALLIGNING_

Mike used his skills and experience gained from his delivery business to stand out when he applied for a role with Coca-Cola in 1998, earning the job and the company van that allowed him to regularly see best friend Mark in Oxford, sowing the seeds for StreetDrone’s future.

However, both had industries to transform and companies to lead before reaching autonomous vehicles.

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESSES_

Winning on Track

When Arrows folded in 2002, Mark moved to McLaren and linked up with the famous Adrian Newey, overseeing stress analysis, composite design, materials, and vehicle laboratories.

Then came a greater challenge, joining forces with Aguri Suzuki to create an F1 team in just 100 days, working as the Founder and Technical Director of the new team: the Super Aguri Honda F1 Team. This is now a story infamous among the employees of StreetDrone, told in hushed tones around the campfire. 

While short-lived in F1, it was a partnership that was revived in 2013 when Mark headed up one of the first-ever Formula E Teams, Team Aguri, as one of only 10 founding Team Principals, in leading a motorsport revolution as it embraced e-mobility. 

Mark would leave an incredible impact in Formula E, becoming the most successful Team Principal in the series as it evolved into DS-Techeetah, winning 3 Drivers’ and 2 Teams’ World Championships. 

Speaking to Mark now, he’s incredibly humble about his achievements on-track and is clearly striving for the next level in performance, always. Optimisation is the game and Mark is pretty good at winning.

Transforming the World of Data

Mike would begin working with pioneering technologies, joining the fledgling Expedia in 2000 as just the seventh employee on the books in the UK. 

Heavyweights Microsoft pushed Expedia forward, helping Mike put himself front and centre in the world of e-commerce, not only in the UK, but across Expedia’s fledgling European operations. 

It was the perfect grounding for Mike to launch his second business, and in 2006, Elisa Interactive Group was formed, focussing on data analytics and the optimisation of ecommerce sites across the UK, Spain and Portugal.

After seven years, and clients ranging from Zara to Sky.com, Elisa Interactive was acquired by multinational media agency Havas and Mike became the Chief Data Officer of Havas’s operations in the UK.

CONVERGENCE_

Improving the Lives of People in Cities

Both feeling they needed new challenges, there was the burning desire to be at the vanguard of pioneering technology, and a global event helped them focus on their next move. 

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption, which covered much of Europe in ash clouds and grounded flights, led to Mike spending five days in Oxford with Mark, during which time they dreamed big. 

All day they would analyse global technology companies, before unwinding in the local pub in the evening, laying the groundwork for what would later become their move into the autonomous technology sector. 

In 2015, rising to the challenge of future transportation and mobility in Oxfordshire, Mike and Mark co-founded the MobOx Foundation. They teamed up with Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, and the Oxfordshire County Council, providing the perfect opportunity for their shared knowledge of data, motorsport, automotive, and business to dovetail. This proved pivotal in the founding of StreetDrone one year later.

StreetDrone is Born

From there, the pair never looked back. In 2016, it was the turn of Oxbotica, an autonomous vehicle software company, who requested that Mike, Mark, and future StreetDrone Technical Director Ian Murphy proposed an autonomous-ready vehicle solution: a robotised Renault Twizy concept was built to be used as an autonomous software test platform for the road by Oxbotica.

While Oxbotica decided to not go with the Oxford based solution, other potential clients saw the genius in using the Twizy. The duo pushed forward, utilising their thick contacts book, they quickly sold their first vehicle to the successful Cambridge startup Wayve.

Mike’s extensive background in marketing, commercial, and entrepreneurship, combined with Mark’s engineering expertise and experience in building high-performance teams, provides a world-class leadership team. With dozens of potential customers and the makings of a growing business, the partners set up shop in 2017 with an office in Oxford to develop their technologies from the ground up.

GROWING_

Feet on the Ground, Shoot for the Stars

Fast forward six years and this growing team (now over 35 people) in Oxford is working to change the world using its autonomous solutions. From grassroots motorsport to the future of autonomous vehicles, Mike and Mark share an insatiable appetite for creating new technologies with real applications – and now it’s paying off.

Speak to Mike about the company he has built and it’s clear – he wants StreetDrone to be the best place in the world to work. 

Just look around at the community from industry that gathers at their Summer Party every year. As the team moves from success to success (with over 30 autonomous vehicles in the wild and recently completing the first autonomous deliveries at Nissan’s car plant in Sunderland), the founders manage to revel in that sweet-spot of startups: growing at a fast pace and retaining a sense of fun, empathy, and excitement for adventure.

From a paper round in Australia, to scaling both digital and four-wheeled worlds of data and motorsport, to transforming the communities of Oxfordshire and now deploying real near-term autonomy, Mike and Mark have built something remarkable together.

https://github.com/streetdrone-home/SD-TwizyModel/blob/master/streetdrone_model/sd_docs/imgs/sd.png

Autonomy: The future of motorsport and personal travel

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Autonomous technology has the power to redefine driving, both on the race track and in our daily lives, states Mark Preston, Team Principal of the Team Aguri Formula E squad

Autonomous vehicles have been a regular feature in the headlines over the past year as the technology has been refined and global brands such as Google, Apple and Tesla have pioneered their own approaches to commercialising its wide array of applications.

While the technology is in its infancy, the rate of development and investment in this burgeoning market is impressive. The UK government has pledged £100m to the development of the industry, which is expected to create 320,000 jobs by 2030, while both Tesla and Google plan to have their first models on the market by 2020.

However teething problems remain, as highlighted by 14 accidents that Google’s car has suffered in the last six years, in which time is has covered some 1.9 million miles of testing.

Mark Preston, Team Principal of Team Aguri – a race squad competing in the all-electric Formula E series – believes that autonomous vehicles have a promising future, and that motorsport may hold the key to unlocking its full potential.

Showcasing ideas to the world

“Motorsport is a great testing ground. I see Formula E as a prototyping competition for autonomous vehicles and other technologies,” comments Preston.

“It’s a great place to experiment and showcase new ideas, and bring them to the attention of the world in a controlled environment where people can gain confidence that they are safe.”

Preston’s comments aren’t without president. In recent years motorsport has been responsible for the development of kinetic energy recovery and smaller, more efficient engines, which are becoming commonplace in today’s road cars. Other technologies that have a motorsport lineage include four wheel drive, traction control and even rear view mirrors are now considered standard.

While some are hesitant about taking the purity away from motorsport, Preston is quick to assert that applications of autonomous technology need not impact on racing: “We don’t want to take away the skill of the driver, but there are a number of times in a race when technology does not dominate the performance or outcome of the race, such as pit stops and following the safety car.”

“’Follow me’ technology has already been developed by BMW and Jaguar and we could easily have race cars following the i8 safety car in Formula E. The Toyota Hybrid ran completely on electric power while in the pitlane during this year’s Le Mans 24 hours, which could have been implemented autonomously as soon as the driver crossed the pitlane entry line. This could spell the end to unsafe releases, as the pitlane would follow a set of rules.”

Preston believes such an approach will be crucial to increasing public acceptance of such innovations, while promoting new collaborations between academia, race teams and car manufacturers.

Sustainability through autonomy

Team Aguri has formed a partnership with the MobOx Foundation – a ‘living laboratory’ in Oxford that runs studies into the innovative technologies that will shape the future of our cities – to better to understand where such inventions first enter daily life.

“Studies so far, supported by Innovate UK, have shown that dynamic routing and dynamic timetabling in public transport could be enabled by autonomous technology, allowing flexible operations 24 hours per day,” states Preston.

“We all hate poor, unreliable public transport, but with autonomous buses it would be possible to increase the frequency of buses to at least one every five minutes and enable routes that are could alleviate the need for personal transport,” he continues. “Furthermore, autonomous cars won’t just sit in car parks anymore; they will continue on, doing other jobs during the day, instead of waiting on the side of the road, creating better traffic flow.”

While common use of autonomous technology in both public and personal transport remains a few years away, it offers a simple solution to creating greener, safer cities. The first step to its widespread acceptance may very well lie with winning the hearts and minds of the public through its performance on the racetrack.

For more information on Team Aguri, please visit: www.team-aguri.com

When Racing and Virtual Reality Collide

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Augmented reality has the potential to revolutionise sport, sustainability and transport in megacities. Formula racing is a vibrant, colourful, fast paced sport. Now, something new is set to offer its innovative, immersive motoring experiences to viewers beyond the trackside.

The Oculus Rift is a new virtual reality headset that allows players to step into a game. Or a race. It produces a stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view. The point of this is simple; you don’t see the screen. The technology overcomes resolution and latency problems that have plagued previous virtual reality (VR) headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the head.

“All of us at Oculus Virtual Reality are excited to bring truly immersive VR to people who love video games like we do,” said Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus. “Virtual reality has been the long sought after Holy Grail, which most people only ever dreamed of until now. The Oculus Rift is a true game changer that will help make VR the standard for game play in the very near future.”

But I believe that Oculus has potential to deliver more than just immersive gaming and along this avenue my ideas can be how we deal with the lack of engine noise prevalent in current Formula E cars. The phenomenon is something that new F1 engines are struggling with too. VR offers a solution; one that has far reaching implications.

One of the great things with how the season has gone so far is that we have plenty of racing spectacle. Obviously the noise of F1 cars does blow your mind, particularly when you see the race in person, but if you have to rely on the noise to deliver the experience then that’s a problem.

I believe that Formula E can solve this by integrating other experience mechanisms like real time gaming, or VR. Imagine if you could sense enough data from the car and transfer this at the highest rate you can to someone at home and then use that data to truly immerse them in the race. I think that’s the future because ultimately we all want to be more engaged.

The following video shows just what can be done with what we have right now. Although it shows what can be done in American football, it does give you an idea of what can be done in general and apply it to any sport, including formula racing.

I reckon that this is something that can be driven by transferring the experience from the car to the viewer as vividly as possible. If you could feel that experience of driving a Formula E car, possibly through new devices like the Oculus Rift product and the on-car data analysis systems being used in autonomous vehicles, then I think that would really redefine how we experience the sport and make things like sound irrelevant.

And don’t think that car manufacturers are far behind, this is what Jaguar are currently proposing:

Autonomous cars offer tremendous scope for achieving this. They harvest far more data than existing vehicles, and feeding that into the latest VR devices will offer a more absorbing, interactive experience.

My vision hints how Formula E fans across the world could be plugged in to every nuance and twist of a track. Such an experience would have long lasting repercussions in the world of sport, advertising and VR, but could also impact on sustainability now and into the future.

I ran R&D and test teams throughout my F1 career. We were already trying to do data mining back in 1998, but of course the PCs couldn’t handle a lot of the data at that time because they lacked the processing power.

As computing power got bigger we really saw an increase in the level of sensors on the cars. Autonomous vehicles are now sensing an order of magnitude more data in order to feed the artificial intelligence systems that allow them to drive unaided.

Such fast changing technology, where open data and the internet change our world, could solve environmental challenges and offer nifty ways to virtually race. I went off to Silicon Valley five years ago to find out how they were approaching automotive. They were approaching it in a completely different way, with focuses on car-sharing, open-data source journey planners for public and so forth.

My thinking was that if Silicon Valley were going about solving these problems in a particular way, then maybe we were going about it the wrong way. When we started looking at setting up a Formula E team we saw it was relevant for driving innovation of electric powertrains, with applications in electric buses, trains and the traditional road car.

Technology from sport drifts into the mainstream, whether through data led VR or electric road cars. I believe such ideas can lead to true integrated transportation in the megacities of the world. If you put all this together you get a picture of how to solve the whole system.

Transplanting ideas from race track to sustainable city has precedent. When I did my MBA, I learned the effect of ripples through many seemingly disparate markets. There is always cross-pollination of ideas, so long as you’re able to be open minded about similarities.

McLaren’s recent renaming to “McLaren Technology Group” evidences a wider shift among racing companies into sustainability science. This reflects their move into more enterprise focused solutions.

Tomorrow’s world is full of possibilities. Global users might share in a Formula E race via VR, before virtually learning how cars can modify our urban sustainability impacts. Then, they might drive electric vehicles to purchase game consoles, which transmit household energy data back to the web.

Such linked up science need not be an impossible imagining. Indeed, it is limited only by how widely we conceive the future.

Reprinted from Mark Preston’s column Racing to the Future in Motorsport Monday

Why is the Foxconn announcement so interesting?

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Like many young engineers, I wanted to build my own road car. I began to plan out how much it would cost, where I would buy parts, what would I use as a donor vehicle, how would I manufacture the bodywork and especially and most importantly: what engine would I use?!

I didn’t just want to make just another kit car, it had to be scaleable with my own engine. And that’s where I ran into trouble. If you look at most low volume specialist cars today they use an engine from one of the top OEM’s, for example Lotus uses Toyota engines.

This makes the internal combustion engine an important part of an OEM’s differentiation in the market and a large barrier to entry for new would be manufacturers.  The shear number of requirements for the development of an internal combustion engine today is enormous: €500m would be a good round number to start with in the bank!

But what happens when the internal combustion engine is removed from the equation as with an electric car? Electric motors have existed for over 100 years and they are in almost every common house hold device from a fridges to an air conditioner.  The old barrier to market entry is reduced by a large margin.  The design of a vehicle, although complicated and complex, it is not too dissimilar to designing a modern high end SMART Phone.  It is still difficult, but not an insurmountable challenge and many large companies would be very capable.

This change in the market will allow new entrants and possibly the disruptive change in the automotive industry perhaps to the same level as other industries that are described in great detail in Clayton Christensen’s The Innovators Dilemma.  The recent announcement by Foxconn is an interesting move by one of the world’s largest manufacturers and it could be the start of more movements by Apple, Google and others into one of the oldest markets in the world: transportation.

With the added innovations through driverless capabilities maybe the new entrants change the market as fast as SMART phones did in the mobile market?  Initially we don’t think this is likely just because of the higher capital intensity of a car compared to a phone and the shear number of vehicles that would have to be replaced throughout the world.  But with 80m vehicles being produced every year, it is not unfathomable that new competitors could make a dent in urban markets in the Mega-Cities of the world.

Our belief is that transportation will develop in a trajectory driven by Urbanisation: this is well described in Frost and Sullivan’s Mega-Trends study.   The resultant changes in the industry will move towards mobility becoming a service: i.e. Mobility as a Service.  At this point it is highly possible that vehicles become a set of “devices” on a network integrated by overall mobility integrators: similar to the telecoms integrators such as Vodafone and Telefonica.  These mobility integrators will operate different devices on the network which could be provided by existing and incoming device manufacturers such as Foxconn.

Is this move by Foxconn just the start of something far larger?  We think so and have been working on Integrated Transportation studies with the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University in a Technology Strategy Board sponsored feasibility study in Oxford, UK, called the Oxford Transport Laboratory. click here

The Amlin Aguri Formula E car in China’s Mega-City Beijing

Race to the future

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A year from now, climate negotiators representing countries worldwide will be in Paris. They hope to finalise international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change. Success will depend heavily on economic policy, and the new technologies to usher in a carbon light world.

“Unlike treaties of the past, the Paris agreement needs to speak as loudly of economic transformation as it does of carbon emissions targets,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President. The Bank wants new clean technology investments. It wants energy efficiency, performance standards for vehicles and clear economic remit for change.

Motorsport seems an unlikely partner in all this. But the silent technologies being developed in Formula E are ideally placed to put the Bank’s vision on the ground. The Formula, a hotbed for excitement and intrigue, is also a key testing space for sustainable batteries, systems and futurist thinking.

Amlin Aguri racecar driven by Antonio Felix da Costa in Punta del Este, December 2014

“The future I see is for energy companies to become energy carriers,” says Preston. He has 12 years top level motorsport experience with Arrows, McLaren and Super Aguri F1 teams. Electric motors and reimagined transport are central to his vision. It involves carbon-light urban mobility in the cities of tomorrow.

“Fuel, batteries, hydrogen; they are all just carriers of energy. The energy is just stored in a number of different forms. Each has relevance to future transportation and we are working on all within SAFE Racing Technologies, our technology company that support the Amlin Aguri Formula E racing team.”

Finding more reliable energy storage is key. Preston believes legislation is a strong force to help. “If one mega city in China changed its rules to have zero emissions in the city, this could support three new, sustainable electric car companies, all using futurist batteries and storage tech.” he says.

“I think one of the reasons this hasn’t started yet is because the local companies are not quite there with the technology, so the government won’t start until the local companies can support. This is where Formula E comes in.” Motorsports has traditionally driven development in clutches or computer controlled suspension. Now it provides a testbed for advanced EV technologies.

“Once one city does EV successfully, it is possible to start a snowball effect with cities such as Los Angeles perhaps trying again; they tried in the 90s if I recall,” says Preston. In another shift in sustainable thinking, he explains how Formula E is exploring parallels between energy and cloud-based computer systems.

“When software is based in the cloud, individual upgrades in server speeds or software tweaks see all users on the system benefiting immediately,” he begins.

“I think the same could be true of our electrical grid. Today we have coal fired powerstations, but as soon as one of them is upgraded the whole system would be simultaneously. The concept is the ‘Energy Cloud,’ as some people are beginning to call it.

“As more renewables come online, this energy cloud is naturally and automatically upgraded. When more energy carriers connect to the smart grid, and electric cars plug in, the intermittent nature of some renewables is dealt with automatically by the Smart Energy Cloud.”

In this way, cohesive cloud systems could alleviate shortfalls in solar or wind power through scale. “Some more radical ideas could be carbon sequestration at the source of the power generation,” Preston continues.

Returning to the Formula E circuit, he hopes to see static batteries, ready at each race track one month before the race. These would be charged using solar and other renewables, from the smart energy cloud ready for use on race day.

“After the race they would be used for legacy projects; emergency power backup systems for hospital and schools. Cars need only be one part of the modal mix. The design will have longevity. I see Formula E providing a showcase for technology to encourage early adoption of new ideas by making the technology cool and relevant.”

Such Formula E technology might feature in tomorrow’s cars, trains or buses, depending on market dynamics. Preston points out that F1 flywheel technology is finding its way into buses at the moment. “Routes to market can take different paths. Formula E will develop technologies to push overall electrification of the transport industry.”

Widespread takeup for EV may well need direct wireless charging, which Preston discussed at a recent sustainable transport forum in Cologne. “Many bus projects are up and running where a bus will charge at every stop on its journey, effectively giving it limitless range using an electric drivetrain.

“Formula E is developing battery charging, packaging and programming of usage patterns. We are set to  really showcase what a cool and interesting thing electrification of vehicles is.”

Jim Yong Kim believes decarbonising energy sectors over time, while maintaining energy required for development constitutes a challenge no developed country has faced in its history.

“Getting to net zero emissions before 2100 will require a continuing shift in the direction of our energy portfolio, to support energy access for all and increase investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency,” he said.

“It will require continued support for clean transportation and building low-carbon, livable cities, particularly in the fast-growing cities of the developing world, where development today will lock in growth patterns for decades to come.”

Such green transportation may seem light years from the race tracks of Putrajaya or Uruguay. But perhaps, as electric race cars whizz quietly around, the answers are coming.

Betting on Electric

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I have re-posted my Blog article from Huffington Post here to add a few more comments after speaking at a few more events recently.  I was very interested in how many students at Oxford and Cambridge were interested in our vision for the future, what did we think would happen next, how will it effect their futures.

Thinking on it since, if I was leaving University in the next few years and wanted to work in an industry with longevity which was looking to change the world, then I would have to think long and hard.  Even if I look at some of the long term predictions for fossil fuel which have it dominating automotive for at least the next 20-30 years, at current graduate would only be in the middle of their careers by then, which means that what ever I bet on now should carry me a long way.  Which way would i bet on the future?

Betting on Electric by Mark Preston

When I was a student engineer I wanted to build my own road car. I planned out how much it would cost, where I would buy parts, what would I use as a donor vehicle, how would I manufacture the bodywork and most importantly: what engine would I use? I didn’t want to make just another kit car, it had to be scalable, and with my own engine. And that’s where I ran into trouble.

If you look at most low volume specialist cars today they have to use an engine from one of the top Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs): for example Lotus uses Toyota engines in their cars. This makes the Internal Combustion Engine an important part of an OEM’s differentiation in the market and a large barrier to entry for new would-be manufacturers. The sheer number of requirements for the development of a new internal combustion engine today is enormous: €500m would be a good round number to start with!

But what happens when the internal combustion engine is removed from the equation? Which is the case with an electric car. Electric motors have existed for over 100 years and they are in almost every common household device from a fridge to an air conditioner. The barrier to market entry is suddenly reduced considerably and allows a whole range of possibilities. The design of an electric vehicle, although complicated and complex, is not too dissimilar to designing a modern high end smartphone. It is still difficult, but not an insurmountable challenge. Many large companies would be very capable of designing and manufacturing an electric vehicle with the help of any number of large engineering companies that exist.

The innovation to drive the electric Powertrain development and concepts such as wireless charging will come from one of the newest motorsports in the world, the FIA Electric Vehicles Series: Formula E. Our team, Amlin Aguri, had its first race in Beijing this year and we believe that Formula E will help to revolutionise the technology required to drive development in the road going world.


Amlin Aguri in Beijing for the first FIA electric car race.

The change brought about by Foxconn’s investment in the market, and the advent of new competitive motorsport arenas, to push development will create new entrants and possibly the disruptive change in the automotive industry to the same level as other industries that are described in great detail in Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. The recent announcement by Foxconn is an interesting example of the future of the world’s largest manufacturers and it could be the start of more movements by Apple, Google and others into one of the oldest markets in the world: transportation. The Chinese government has stated in the past that strategically there is no reason for home grown car companies to develop ICEs; it would be better to leapfrog to full EV where the playing field is much more equal.

With the added innovations through driverless capabilities, like new driverless buses, maybe the new innovators will change the market as fast as smartphones did in the mobile market. Initially rapid change is unlikely because of the higher capital intensity of a car, compared to a phone, and the sheer number of vehicles that would have to be replaced throughout the world. But with 80 million vehicles being produced every year, it is not unfathomable that new competitors could make a dent in urban markets in the megacities of the world.

Switching to EVs helps to alleviate the pollution problem in urban centres, though it doesn’t remove the congestion. As part of a recent study I carried out in Oxford, UK, which involved the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and the County Council, we looked at the problems of capacity in a small city with only five main roads entering the city centre. The photo below illustrates that, by running higher density of people, in this case with buses or bicycles, the capacity of the arteries is increased.


Density of travel for the 70 people using cars, buses, bicycles and walking.

Therefore the trajectory of development in transportation will be driven by urbanisation, especially in megacities of the world which have the populations and hence the spending power to make real changes. The concept is well described in Frost and Sullivan’s Mega­Trends study. The resultant changes in the industry will move towards mobility becoming a service: i.e. mobility as a Service. At this point it is highly possible that vehicles become a set of “devices” on a network integrated by overall systems integrators: similar to the telecoms integrators such as Vodafone and Telefonica. These vehicle systems integrators will operate different devices on the network that could be provided by existing and incoming device manufacturers – such as Foxconn or Google.

Is the move by Foxconn technology group to invest heavily in electric vehicles in China just the start of something far larger? We at Amlin Aguri think so.

Mark Preston is the Team Principal of Formula E racing team: Amlin Aguri.

Mark will be speaking at “Eco Machines: Designing the Cars of the Future” hosted by Intelligence Squared and Shell at Saint Catharine’s College, Cambridge on October 21st 2014.

Oxford Consortium Wins TSB Integrated Transportation Call

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Technology Strategy Board: Integrated Transport – In Field Solutions
Project: Oxford Transport Laboratory

Benefiting people and business

The benefits of creating smarter, connected cities are clear – increased economic growth and better visitor experience whilst reducing environmental impact. Funded by the Technology Strategy Board, Oxford is embarking on an ambitious project to improve the experience of visiting the City by creating open systems, processes and technologies that will benefit visitors, residents and  businesses alike.

Driven by Innovation

The most important aspect of this project will be the harmonisation of the data and technologies that currently exist but remain locked into the business and government systems. Our ability to provide this data for the use of all stakeholders will be of critical importance in ensuring the continued growth of Oxford as a commercial, educational and employment centre.

This project will propose ways for Oxford to increase its economic viability for every stakeholder in the city – an improvement in traffic management, parking, increased visitor numbers, increased retail spend by visitors and better communication around mobility within the ring road are key objectives.

We also have an important job to do – limiting the impact of the closure of the Westgate centre and car park. Redevelopment plans mean that in January 2015 Oxford centre will lose 800 of it’s existing 2,000 car parking spaces, placing additional burdens on all areas of the transport system. As a result there is considerable risk of reduced income to retailers and businesses.

This initial 3 month project will provide clear analysis and recommendations as to how Oxford should approach these challenges, in both the short and longer terms. Innovation with technology, data and smart processes will be at heart of our recommendations, and will provide a platform for the development of an open system to the benefit of all.

Mobility, Communication, Partnerships

We already have a significant amount of data showing the way that people move in and around Oxford, and we are putting in significant efforts to analyse this data. However this project will go further than simply looking at traffic and transportation solutions. We recognise that to be successful, Oxford must also engage with people and businesses.

The key partners that will form part of the Oxford study bring a wide and varied experience – chipset providers and other technology providers, companies that run public transport, retailers, University and Local Authorities. We will cover all aspects that a smart city should provide to its visitors and residents..

The start of the journey

We are still at the formative stages of the Oxford project, focusing on understanding the main challenges that the city faces, analysing the data we have around transport and the movement of people in and around the city and establishing relationships with key companies and organisations.

 

About the Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency.  Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation.  Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org.

About Preston Motorsport

Preston Motorsport was formed in 2005 by Mark Preston who wanted to create a company which used motorsports DNA to support the wider industry to create real disruptive innovation.  Preston Motorsports first worked with the Super Aguri team when it supported the entry into Formula 1 team, competing in the World Championship from 2006 to 2008. Their new partnership will see Super Aguri Formula E team compete in the FIA Formula E Championship for low emission cars, racing on 10 tracks across the globe commencing in September 2014.

Preston said, “it became obvious to us a few years ago that the future of transportation was not going to centre around cars as it has done for the last few decades, there will be a disruptive shift in how we live, travel and interact with transportation devices.  We believe strongly that the future will be “Mobility as a Service”.  We began working on this project in after a trip to San Francisco looking at innovation and ideas surrounding the future of automotive and came up with this proposal for Oxford.  We have a great set of partners who we believe will deliver exciting new ideas that can be rolled out to the world.”

http://www.prestonracing.com

About Oxford County Council

Working on this TSB project has enabled the County Council as Transport Authority to  form a consortium with Businesses and the Universities creating opportunities for the Council to lead, influence, and gain funding for innovative transport solutions.  The County Council will provide access to a variety of real-time and historical datasets sourced from the private and public sector. Creating business opportunities and encouraging SME to grow in Oxfordshire and the South East by allowing developers and other stakeholders to use the data they need to build applications and services for the benefit of transport users and beyond. Oxfordshire County Council is designing an  Innovation Support Programme which will provide a web portal with information about local and national business support services, linking up growing services and provide support and funding to the innovators , investors and entrepreneurs involved in the county’s innovation eco-system.

About DBi (Elisa Interactive Ltd)

DBi is one of Europe’s leading data and marketing technology consultancies, and was recently acquired by Havas Media Group in an effort to increase their global footprint in the space. Our focus is on the optimising technology and data that drives business insights and growth, and enabling companies to become smarter.

The Oxford project gives us the opportunity to work with a city, rather than with brands, however the objective for us is the same – how to make Oxford smarter through the use of data and technology. We incredibly excited to be part of making this happen.

About Zeta Automotive

Zeta Automotive, formed 25 years ago is a highly innovative electronic development company. With several awards for innovative technology, Zeta is a Tier one supplier to the motor industry.  Arriva PLC recently acquired a majority stake in Zeta having approved one of its latest products for roll out across its fleet of buses.  Arriva is one of the largest transport services organisations in Europe.

About The University of Oxford

The Transport Studies Unit (TSU) (http://www.tsu.ox.ac.uk) is an interdisciplinary research centre based at University of Oxford. Over the past 40 years the TSU has established an international research reputation in the fields of transport policy analysis, mobility and travel behaviour research, and the development of new methodologies and tools. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the social, economic, environmental and health implications of transport and mobility over both time and space. The TSU’s work ranges in geographic scale from the local to the global, and the full spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research techniques is deployed.

David Banister, Director and Professor of Transport Studies, said: “Transport is a topic that impacts on all of us and it substantially influences the way in which we see the world and interact with it. Transport is also of great importance to economic wellbeing and the social participation of individuals and communities, in particular in mixed-use, urban areas such as Oxford.”

The Energy & Power Group (EPG) in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford undertakes computational and experimental sustainable energy research with particular focus onsmart energy systems, energy storage, transport and electrical machines. It has a strong record of commercialising the research activity and has lead to three spin out companies.

Malcolm McCulloch, Head of the Energy and Power Group, said “This opportunity can enable the City of Oxford to pioneer an exciting integrated mobility system that improves the experience of travelling into the City and reduces the net carbon footprint.”

About Oxford Brookes University

The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences provides a range of professionally accredited mechanical, automotive, motorsport, mathematical and statistical programmes of study. Our focus is to provide world class, high quality teaching and applied research so as to give our students an excellent experience.

 

Formula E – Car Launch

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Momentum is everything in motor racing and the unveiling of the new Formula E race car at the Frankfurt Motor Show shows this exciting series is beginning to gather some serious pace.

By all reports electric vehicles (EVs) have been all the rage at the event further indicating the motor industry’s preference to develop eco-friendly cars. You only have to look as far as BMW’s impressive i8 to see what impact EVs are going to have on the future.

From my standpoint, Formula E in particular will shape all kinds of major technological advances in the next five to 10 years – most of which will affect in someway how we as humans approach mobility in true megacities like London and Tokyo.

It’s only around the corner when every black cab you’ll see in London will be running electric or hybrid and the city (expect for screeching brakes on just about every bus, car and truck) will be quieter and almost pollution free.

While the first year of the Formula E series will see all 10 teams compete using the same Spark-Renault SRT-01E, I think we’ll really start to see benefits of the series once teams start developing their own cars.

Having a top driver in the first year might snatch the title, but what will count going forward is how teams devise solutions to out-develop each other in specific areas such as battery control, cooling efficiency, power optimization/management and my personal favorite (once 4WD is introduced) 4WD torque vectoring.

Critically, this can give teams the chance to monetize what they’ve created and translate that outside the garage. As we’ve seen at McLaren in recent years their focus has grown strongly on increasing the output of their premium sports cars which draw on the team’s F1 expertise and technology.

With the right minds focused on the drawing board there is a plethora of cutting-edge technologies and systems that can be developed in Formula E and translated to the everyday person living in a modern day metropolis.

Reducing anxiety range in electric road cars will most probably be one of the first problems solved through Formula E. Battery development will progress at a lightning speed and it won’t be long until this makes its way to the consumer.

Tesla’s 90-second battery change is also an interesting step forward. If Formula E can harness and translate this then the proposed ‘car change pitstop’ could quickly be a thing of the past as drivers pit over a battery plate and have a fresh cell loaded within 20 seconds – effectively replacing the petrol pump.

What is exciting is that this is all technology that can realistically filter down to the average eDriver – someone who relies on mobility and wants it to be in an eco-friendly and sustainable form.

Formula E will start us thinking about ‘mobility as a service’ which can help drive more efficient and sustainable transport. It will enable us to build new business models to ease the cost of EVs  for the average person and this is all done through racing the best part of motorsport!

The series will certainly be a spectacle and crucially it gets right to the heartbeat of cities like Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aries, Los Angles and Rome with street circuits likely to attract thousands of onlookers.

“Designing a new BEV: all I can predict is that I will be wrong!”

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I was talking to a Programme Manager for a future battery electric vehicle (BEV) and the only thing she knew for certain was whatever she designed would be wrong!  It’s difficult predicting the future and it seems that predicting the right way to go in the electrification of vehicles is an art not a science.

“If it is so difficult to predict the future, why are you interested in EV’s and Formula E when you have spent most of your career designing and racing Formula One cars?”, I was asked by one of my colleagues.

There are a couple of reasons.

If I take the advice of my programme manager friend and focus on what I believe is the most interesting future scenario then I have a very intresting picture in my mind.  Vision, or strategic intent is how it was described to us on our MBA; the kind of vision that Honda displayed when they enterred the US market with a step through motorcycle on its way to becoming a global automotive leader, is the only way to go!

Lets see if I can articulate my vision for the future of vehicles: or perhaps I should describe it as future mobility.

Start with the powertrain.

If you apply F1 thinking, then the most efficient controllable, nimble vehicle would be 4WD for traction and torque vectoring, powered by very small light responsive hub mounted electric motors (reverse torque and regenerating capability) with a high density power source, an efficient control system and a power unit that could convert from its storage medium to electricity fast and efficiently.

I saw the benefits of torque vectoring in relation to my work in vehicle dynamics: traction control, launch control and active differentials when I was Head of R&D at Arrows Grand Prix and later as Technical Director at Super Aguri F1 Team.  The amount of control that can be afforded the driver using torque vectoring to its ultimate capability is astounding and I hope that the Formula E vehicles that we can develop over the coming years of competition will deliver on this promise: I certainly look forward to driving one!

What should the energy storage system of the future be?  The long term solution seems to be hydrogen because of its energy density capability plus the fact that the hydrogen can be created using alternative forms of energy and burned cleanly at the place of use.  Storage and distribution are holding this back, but I am sure it will come at some point in the future.

But in the meantime, one idea is to use fossil fuels in the most efficient way possible.  A combination of battery storage and ICE’s as a range extender seems to me to be the best short term solution.  In fact for the highest efficiency system, why not take a small super efficient high revving engine, like a Honda generator, that can be packaged in a very small space?

Imagine a high efficiency, high volume manufactured power unit based on a standard generator.

So in summary, the powertrain is made up of a combination of batteries, high efficiency ICE running on fossil fuels in the short term and hydrogen created with alternative energies in the longer term, powering 4WD in wheel electric motors with torque vectoring and regeneration capabilities: hopefully the future of Formula E!

The next post will look ideas around connected vehicles and the total mobility package of the future and how this ties together to create future mobility solutions.

Formtech E1 – Lightweight Concepts for Future EV’s – Future Car Body 2012 Bad Neuheim

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I presented Formtech’s lightweight concept at the recent Future Car Body last week in Bad Neuheim in Germany.  An interesting event looking at lightweight concepts of the future.

Formtech E1 – Lightweight Concepts for Future EV’s at the Automotive Circle Future Car Body event in Bad Neuheim Germany n 2012

The presentation looked at concepts that were developed during the creation of the Formtech E1 EV research concept vehicle.  We approached the development from the ground up looking at the issues surrounding design and manufacturing of composite structures drawing on previous work.  Our previous work into the substitution of composites in Formula One was used to drive our thinking in substitution in the automotive industry.